Carcassonne

Carcassonne is one of those rare games that is genuinely simple to explain and genuinely interesting to play, at any level of experience. Two people who have never played before can have a perfectly good game. Two people who have played a hundred times will find different depths in the same tiles.

How it works

On your turn, you draw a tile showing a fragment of medieval landscape — roads, city walls, fields, monasteries — and place it adjacent to tiles already on the table. The board grows organically as the game progresses.

After placing a tile, you may place one of your meeples on it: as a knight claiming a city, a robber on a road, a monk in a monastery, or a farmer in the fields. When a feature is completed, the meeples on it score points and return to your supply.

The trick is that meeples are limited. Placing one is a commitment. Getting them back requires completing the feature — which requires other players’ tiles, which they may or may not provide.

The tension

Carcassonne looks calm and pretty while it is happening. The tension arrives when someone places a tile that connects two partially-built cities — and they have a knight in both. Suddenly a feature that was worth eight points to you is worth eight points to both of you, or worse, more to them.

Field scoring at the end, which rewards farmers connected to completed cities, is entirely invisible during the game and dramatically reshapes the final scores. Experienced players will be watching the fields. New players usually won’t. This is one of the things I explain before we start.

Best for

A brilliant choice when the group spans different ages or experience levels. Works beautifully as a two-player game. Fast enough for multiple rounds in an evening.